Monday, February 16, 2015

The textures and flavors of classic Girl Scout Samoas Cookies are all there in this giant cookie. Gooey, chewy, sticky, sweet, and wonderful. It may even be better than the real thing. It’s a fast, easy, no-mixer recipe that comes together in minutes and there’s nothing fussy about it. There's a simple stir-together dough for the crust before topping with chocolate chips, shredded coconut, sweetened condensed milk, salted caramel, and a final chocolate drizzle. You can use homemade salted caramel or your favorite storebought. I like salted caramel because the slight saltiness cuts through some of the sweetness but regular caramel sauce is fine. The cookie base is soft, chewy, dense, and the perfect support system for the chocolate, coconut, and salted caramel that gets piled on. With this recipe, it's Girl Scout cookie season year-round. Dangerous.

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9-inch pie dish very well with cooking spray; set aside.

In a large, microwave-safe bowl melt the butter, about 1 minute on high power.

Wait momentarily before adding the egg so you don't scramble it. Add the egg, brown sugar, vanilla, and whisk until smooth.

Add the flour, salt, and stir until just combined; don't overmix.

Turn batter out into prepared pie dish, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula. Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes or until edges firm up slightly and center will have begun to set up a bit. It's by no means done, but pie will be returned to oven to bake another 25 minutes or so.

Return pan to oven and bake for about 25 minutes, or until there's slightly bubbling near the edge of dish and the center has dried out some and looks more set. Cookie pie will firm up more as it cools. In the last 10 minutes of baking, watch it like a hawk because the coconut, caramel, and sweetened condensed milk will all be prone to burning; better to underbake than overbake if you're unsure.

Allow pie to cool in dish on a wire rack while you melt the chocolate for drizzling by adding 3/4 cup chocolate chips to a small microwave-safe bowl and heat to melt, about 1 minute on high power. Stop to check and stir and heat in 10-second increments until chocolate can be stirred smooth.

Using a spoon (or pastry bag or ziptop bag with corner cut off if you want to be fancier but I didn't bother), evenly drizzle the chocolate in long vertical lines, parallel to each other, spaced about 1/2-inch apart. Pie doesn't have to be cooled to add the chocolate drizzle.

Allow pie to continue to cool on wire rack for at least 4 hours (or overnight) before slicing and serving. Don't slice too early because chocolate drizzle needs to set and interior of pie needs to firm up or you'll have a literal hot mess. Pie is best fresh, but will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 6 months. I store it by slicing into small wedges, wrapping each wedge individually in plasticwrap, and putting those in a large ziptop bag.

1 can white or black beans, rinsed and drained (you can really use any type of bean you prefer here)

Sauce:

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped onion (about 1/2 medium onion)

2 tablespoons flour

1/3 cup chicken broth

¼ cup milk

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 can (7 ounce) green chile enchilada sauce

½ cup sour cream

Assembly:

8 ounces (about 2 cups) Monterey jack cheese, shredded

8 medium (soft taco size) flour tortillas

Handful of chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the softened cream cheese and green chiles. Mix well. Add the chicken and black beans. Mix to combine. Set aside.

In a large nonstick skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens and starts to turn translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir well. Cook for 1 minute, stirring. Slowly whisk in the chicken broth and milk. As you whisk and the mixture cooks, the flour will get less lumpy around the onions and the mixture will become smooth. Cook over medium heat until the mixture is bubbling and has thickened, about 4-5 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the enchilada sauce and sour cream.

Lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking dish. Spread about 1/4 cup of the sauce on the bottom of the dish. Fill each tortilla with about ½ cup of the chicken/cream cheese filling. Top with a small handful of shredded cheese, a couple tablespoonfuls for each enchilada. Save at least 1/2 cup cheese for the top of the enchiladas. Roll the tortillas up and place seam side down in the prepared baking dish. Continue filling enchiladas until the dish is full (I can easily fit 8 enchiladas in one pan).

Pour the white sauce over the top of the enchiladas. Top with remaining cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the enchiladas are bubbling, hot and lightly browned. Sprinkle fresh cilantro over the top and serve.

Notes

Make Ahead Instructions: Follow the recipe instructions, letting the sauce cool to warm room temperature before proceeding with filling the enchiladas. Assemble the enchiladas as directed in the recipe with the cooled sauce. Cover the baking pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8-12 hours before baking. Bake according to the recipe, adding an additional 5-10 minutes if needed since the enchiladas were refrigerated. Alternately, after assembling, the baking pan can be covered with a double layer of foil and put in a jumbo-sized resealable bag and frozen for up to two months. Bake from frozen by decreasing the baking temperature to 350 degrees F and baking the enchiladas covered for 1 1/2 hours. Uncover and bake an additional 30 minutes to 1 hour until the dish is hot and bubbly.

Cream cheese, jalapeños, and chicken all come together in these irresistible crispy taquitos! This is one amazing go-to crockpot recipe you'll make again and again! Serve these up as a main dish or they're perfect for game day appetizers - either way you can't go wrong!

Add chicken, ½ cup water, cream cheese, jalapeños, garlic powder, salt, and cumin to crockpot. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high 3-4 hours. (lesser times are for thawed chicken, greater times for frozen chicken)

minutes before serving, preheat the oven to 425 and grease a baking sheet with cooking spray.

Use two forks to shred chicken and stir it in with the other contents of the crockpot.

Heat tortillas in the microwave for a few seconds to soften them up, this will make them easier to work with. Sprinkle cheese in the middle of each tortilla (just divide the cheese evenly between all of the tortillas).

Top cheese with 2-3 tablespoons of shredded chicken mixture. Roll tortillas tightly into a log-shape taquito.

Place taquitos on baking sheet and spray heavily with cooking spray. Bake 10-15 minutes until cheese is melty and tortillas begin to brown. (For crispier taquitos, switch the oven to broil for 2-3 minutes - watch carefully so they don't burn!)

In a large pot, heat olive oil. Add chopped onion and cook for about 2 minutes- just until it starts to become translucent. While onions are cooking, drain beans and rinse with cold water and set aside. Sprinkle chopped chicken with a little salt and pepper and add to pot. Add garlic as well. Cook until there’s no more visible pink on the chicken, probably 3-4 minutes.Then add green chills- along with all of the juices in the can. Add beans, cumin, oregano, coriander, salt, and a few turns of fresh cracked pepper. Stir to combine and then add chicken broth.Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and add the juice from one lime and the 1/2 C chopped cilantro. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle into bowls and top with sour cream. Serve with condiments. If you don’t have all those condiments- at least have sour cream! But honestly, it’s best with everything